Tag: How2Recycle

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Recover More Sustainable Packaging Coalition

The View from SPC: A renewed focus on valuable materials

This article originally appeared in the February 2016 issue of Resource Recycling
The How2Recycle Label Program is undertaking a new initiative in 2016: ReStart the Cycle. ReStart the Cycle’s aim is to increase recycling of valuable materials, helping How2Recycle achieve its goal of increasing the quantity and quality of recycled materials.

Increasing recycling of valuable materials supports our vision of the circular economy. ReStart the Cycle will build strong recycling economies, help materials recovery facilities (MRFs) receive the materials that support their economic viability and stability, and provide more recycled content that packaging manufacturers and brands crave.

Broadening packaging sustainability

First, a little background about the labeling program. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s How2Recycle Label is a standardized system that clearly communicates recycling instructions to the public. How2Recycle is a project of GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a membership-based group that brings together business, educational institutions and government agencies to collectively broaden the understanding of packaging sustainability and develop meaningful improvements for packaging solutions.

The program’s ReStart the Cycle effort intentionally uses the “valuable materials” language. Recycling both retains the environmental investment in packaging and is an economic activity. In choosing “valuable materials,” we hope to communicate that packaging is a resource as well as a transporter of product. We must think about recycling as an end-of-use strategy and a sourcing strategy.How2Recycle

So what are valuable materials? Our primary targets are high-value plastics, paper and metals. Examples include PET and HDPE bottles, PP containers, paperboard packaging, newspapers and magazines, and metal cans. There is a lot of room for growth in recycling these materials.

Tossed in the trash

At the Resource Recycling Conference in Indianapolis this past September, Scott Mouw and Rob Taylor of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality presented data from a selection of North Carolina communities. Their findings show just how much potential there is for increased diversion if residents can be informed more effectively.

The households from those North Carolina communities averaged 458 pounds of recyclables thrown in the trash per year. The same households averaged 392 pounds of materials recycled per year. Mouw and Taylor compared this to six communities across the U.S. The households in these six cities averaged 438 pounds of recyclables thrown in the trash per year, and 433 pounds of recyclables in the recycling stream per year.

Mouw and Taylor also broke their data down by commodity, showing opportunities for different materials. Similarly, Sustainable Packaging Coalition member Sego Jackson of Seattle Public Utilities suggested that we as an industry “help get the MRFs the materials they need.”

How2Recycle will do its part through ReStart the Cycle. The strategy relies on the following foundations:

  • Promote the use of How2Recycle on high-value materials. This will continue to reinforce the message to the public that they should recycle these materials. How2Recycle also provides strategic special messaging, such as information telling consumers to keep caps on bottles.
  • Create How2Recycle-specific marketing materials and recycling information for the public. The content will focus on both what should be recycled and why. Our new How2Recycle website, underway in the first quarter of 2016, will harness this content.
  • Partner with other organizations to integrate efforts. How2Recycle is calling for partners and will be reaching out to other organizations working to increase recycling across the country. We welcome ideas and are looking for areas to create synergies between initiatives. There is a lot of great work happening in the recycling field that How2Recycle wants to harness, elevate and complement.

The How2Recycle team looks forward to launching the ReStart the Cycle campaign. If you are interested in partnering with us on this effort, please contact Danielle Peacock at danielle.peacock@greenblue.org

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Recover More Sustainability Tools Sustainable Packaging Coalition Uncategorized

Target & How2Recycle

Target’s Kim Carswell explains why the retail giant decided to join the How2Recycle program

Kim Carswell, Senior Manager of Packaging for Target

At Target, our guests are the center of everything we do.  We have a strong connection to our guests, and we continue to seek ways to be relevant to them.  Adding the How2Recycle label to our owned brand packaging is a way to heighten this relevancy.
Why did you decide to use the label?
Two reasons: our guests and our company strategies.
We know that how our guests manage their packaging when they are done with it is a key way for them to live sustainably. Adding the H2R label to our packaging will help them dispose of it the right way.  Using the label also increases the transparency between Target and our guests, which is important to us.
The label aligns with our three sustainability strategies:

  1.  Provide our guests with ways to live more sustainably
  2.  Offer a great assortment of sustainable products
  3.  Reduce waste

How did you go about it?
We were very intent to attach this work to other brand redesigns already in the works.. We are looking at a long term schedule that will allow the work to grow organically. We are keen not to create packaging waste when we change our packaging designs. We plan to flow through the changes so that old inventories can be depleted. Another key goal is to embed the addition of the label into current processes as much as we can to set ourselves up for a robust and sustainable approach.
What Target products currently use the label?

We have the How2Recycle label on our food brands including Market Pantry, Archer Farms, and Simply Balanced.  It is also on a wide array of our up&up products and select Spritz party supplies items.
And finally…
Here are 10 things we learned along the way and want to share with you. Success for Target, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and all the other How2Recycle label users is for more and more companies to sign on, so we are delighted to share what we learned.

  1.  Tie H2R to company strategies
  2.  Take internal partners and engage them
  3.  Find and tap into internal leaders
  4.  Share the story
  5.  Attach this work to planned brand designs
  6.  Go to where people are
  7.  Keep a close connection with the SPC
  8.  Be flexible
  9.  Keep sharing the story
  10.  Recognize and celebrate the people and work

 

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GreenBlue Recover More Uncategorized

How2Recycle goes to high school

FullSizeRender
“Can I have a Pop Tart?”
This is one of the many questions I received while representing the SPC and my company, HAVI Global Solutions, at Antioch High School’s Earth Day fair in northern Illinois. I prepared for the fair by purchasing high school-friendly products that use the SPC’s How2Recycle Label. (The Pop Tarts, McDonald’s, and Keebler Fudge Sticks were a hit, particularly since the fair was at lunch time). The packages in the photo below are just a sampling of the items that now contain the label.
I have been working with the SPC on the How2Recycle Label for a few years now, so I consider myself to be pretty educated on the program and on recycling generally. However, I was struck by how much I learned as I looked at the various labels. For instance, without the How2Recycle Label present, I wouldn’t have known to keep the cap on the glass Honest Tea bottle or to keep the sprayer on the Seventh Generation cleaning spray.
The high school students ambled by and many looked at us skeptically as we asked them what they would do with a cereal box when they were done with it. Thankfully, this question was too easy for most of them as they knew to recycle the box. Then we asked about the plastic bag that held the cereal inside the box. This time, they were caught off guard and looked uncertain. Two out of the 200+ students and teachers that came by our booth got the right answer. Once we showed them the How2Recycle label on the cereal boxes, they were able to see that they could bring the cereal bag back to a store to place in the plastic bag recycling bins. The American Chemistry Council graciously provided magnets and notepads that we gave to students to bring home and educate their families about film recycling.
We were happy to teach the students something new and we left with some insights of our own. Some thoughts:

  • People think they know a lot about recycling — and many of them do. The students were more educated about recycling than many of the older people we have talked to, which is great news. However, they don’t know everything. This is where the How2Recycle Label can be helpful.
  • When people think they already know about recycling, they don’t necessarily want to learn more and may not check the package for additional information. The more easily the consumer can see the label, the easier it will be for them to recycle properly, even if they don’t actively look for recycling instructions. Special shout out to Seventh Generation for doing a great job on large, high-visibility labels and not being afraid to use the ‘Not Yet Recycled’ label.
  • When high school students have to squint to read the How2Recycle Label, it’s probably too small. I think it’s great that it is on there at all, but if 16 year olds can barely read it, it’s probably not big enough for my 94-year-old grandmother.
  • Incentives help a lot. Thanks to McDonald’s, the ACC, and Seventh Generation, we were able to give out some freebies to students who took the survey. Although we may not be able to give a S’mores Pop Tart to everyone each time they recycle, it is a reality that people are more likely to do something if they get something from it. We know that “Pay as you throw” policies aren’t a panacea, but they do provide economic incentive to recycle and thus increase recovery rates. Check out AMERIPEN’s 2013 White Paper for more information on this.

On a non-recycling note, this experience reminded me the importance of thinking big, even if an opportunity may be a long shot. Brenda Herman is a student at Antioch High School who reached out to the SPC without having any contacts there, asking if they would come to her high school’s Earth Day fair. The SPC is based in Virginia, so a staff member was unable to attend, but we were still able to have a presence at the high school since I am a local Executive Committee member. Thanks to Brenda for reminding us to take risks and ask questions!
IMG_8673Thanks also to HAVI Global Solutions for the priority placed on employees getting into communities and helping people. We have a popular annual tradition called the Week of Giving, which encourages employees to take time out of their work day in order to give back to our community. Through this program, we were able to participate in the Earth Day fair. These kind of activities help strengthen social capital, fostering the often-ignored social pillar of sustainability.
So, Readers: go connect with your community and share your sustainability expertise! Take a step away from our bubble filled with acronyms and technical jargon. You have plenty to teach and you’ll learn a lot as well.
Amy Duquette, SPC Executive Committee Member & Sustainability Project Manager for HAVI Global Solutions

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Sustainable Packaging Coalition

A Unique Approach to Understanding Consumers

When hundreds of packaging professionals are gathered at an event together, a discussion surrounding consumers is inevitable. It is interesting that we as professionals in the industry make so many assumptions about consumer understanding of sustainability attributes of packages but rarely do we talk to consumers about their assumptions. And when we do bring the general public together for surveys or tests, they are typically addressed with leading questions in an unfamiliar office space designed to get answers and move on to the next person.
Wednesday morning at SUSTPACK, Cara Cosentino of Watch Me Think exemplified how videos of consumer interactions with packages are great tools for better industry understanding of the public. Cosentino mentioned that Watch Me Think started as a way for companies to get to know their consumers. Those of us in the packaging industry are all “consumers” too, so it’s odd to think that we might not be able to, but grasping consumers’ thoughts is a constant struggle. Using consumer videos, Watch Me Think has created a comfortable atmosphere for people to express their opinions honestly and effectively.
Cosentino showed the audience glimpses of consumers (or “thinkers” as Watch Me Think likes to call them) interacting with everyday packages and explaining their feelings of sustainable packaging in general. The organization strives to be an authentic look at consumers and her examples certainly showed this authenticity. A few people in the video mentioned that they prefer reusable and recyclable packages and that sustainability is on their mind when grabbing packages off the shelf; however, a few opened up and said environmental efforts have “absolutely no effect on products I purchase.”  These consumers mentioned that money and convenience influence their purchasing decisions much more than sustainability factors. Regardless of the purchasing practices, all of the consumers expressed frustration with over-packaging. E-commerce, toy, and pharmaceutical packaging were among the categories mentioned guilty of over-packaging.
In the SPC’s How2Recycle Label Program we often struggle with consumer understanding, as we are creating on-package recycling labels that will be displayed on millions of commonly purchased packages. It would be interesting to see how consumers feel about the different terminology used in How2Recycle and how well they understand and appreciate seeing the many different label types (Widely Recycled, Check Locally, Store Drop-off, and Not Yet Recycled). Extensive consumer testing was done during the development of How2Recycle, but now that the label is commonly found on store shelves it would be fascinating to see real-time videos of consumers interacting with it!
In the meantime, we appreciate all consumer feedback through our online survey at how2recycle.info. Let us know what you think of the program!

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Recover More

Water Use as a Result of Recycling: Is it Worth It?

As children we are all taught a few of the fundamental ways to act environmentally friendly, including turning off the lights when you leave a room, turning off the faucet immediately after use, shutting doors and windows when the air conditioner is running, and recycling as much as possible. But what do we do when one of these sustainable acts negates the other?
People recognize recycling as a simple way to protect the environment. Unfortunately, depending on the material being recycled, the act of recycling can expend a large amount of water. For example, appropriately recycling plastics often means using a lot of water to ensure the package is decontaminated before putting it in the bin. On the How2Recycle Label, we provide instructions such as “Rinse Before Recycling,” “Rinse Tray,” and “Rinse and Replace Cap” to remind consumers to remove contamination before recycling the package.
In regions such as the Western United States, people might opt to conserve water and throw away a package rather than waste a resource that is currently insufficient in the area. Recycling to conserve materials versus not recycling to conserve water… it’s quite the apples to oranges comparison. I’m hoping a few at-home experiments, will give us a better feel for how much water it takes to recycle different plastic packages.
I used a couple items from my lunch today for the experiment:
1) A spaghetti frozen meal packaged in a polypropylene tray. A meal that left quite a bit of food residue on the package after consumption. It took me about 3 cups (.7 liters) of water to clean this item enough to recycle it appropriately.
Spaghetti_recycling
2) Yogurt in a polypropylene tub (don’t worry, I didn’t eat the whole tub…). Due to the product’s soft texture the yogurt did not stick to the sides of the tub much, and I was able to clean the package out for recycling with about 1.5 cups (.35 liters) of water.
yogurt_recycling
Using the anecdotal evidence from my at-home lunch experiment, preparing truly recyclable packages to be recycled doesn’t have to be wasteful at all. In fact, you know all of the water you used to wash your big frying pan? Don’t let it immediately go down the drain. Instead, reuse the water to rinse out your packages. Remember, packages don’t need to be sparkling clean, they simply need to be clean enough to avoid contaminating the recycling stream.
 

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GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition Uncategorized

GreenBlue Receives an Innovation in Plastics Recycling Award

With America Recycles Day just behind us (this past Saturday, November 15th), here at GreenBlue we are thrilled to announce that we have received an Innovations in Plastics Recycling Award from the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
ACC’s Plastics Division hosts the Innovation in Plastics Recycling Awards annually to recognize organizations bringing new technologies, products, and initiatives to the industry to improve plastics recycling. GreenBlue’s Store Drop-off Label was chosen as one of three winning innovations of this year’s awards.
seventh_gen_store_drop_off
The Store Drop-off Label is intended to educate consumers about the recyclability of plastic bags, films, and wraps at nearby grocery and retail stores with drop-off bins. This label informs consumers about recyclability while they are physically handling the package, so there is no confusion.
The How2Recycle Label currently has 32 participating companies, over half of which are using the Store Drop-off Label. We are looking forward to the expansion of the How2Recycle Label in the coming years to help close the loop on the consumer side, and we are thankful to ACC for helping us spread the word!
If you are interested in learning more or joining the How2Recycle Label, email me at kelly.lahvic@greenblue.org or follow us on Twitter @how2recycle.

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Recover More Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Meditating on Sustainable Materials Management

Last week about a thousand people attended the Together for a Better Planet – Sustainability Forum in Mexico City. Jeff Wooster, GreenBlue board member, and I were among them. The event presented opportunities for companies to showcase products and services with the potential to reduce environmental burdens of various industrial necessities. There were displays of solar panels, wind turbines, electric delivery vehicles, commercial lighting, packaging, agricultural production, etc. The hope with all of this innovation and effort is to allow for the continuation of business while lowering the associated environmental impact over time.
There were discussions on various topics, and one that Jeff and I participated in involved the sustainability of packaging. The panel discussion remained fairly high level and offered a systems perspective for packaged goods. There was much discussion about the recovery of materials from the waste stream and how the bulk of packaging materials end up in landfill or open dumps in Mexico. The small amount of material sorting that occurs in Mexico follows two paths:
Trash collection service is offered in a relatively small part of this enormous and populous city. A crew of half a dozen or more men pick through materials of interest as the truck moves down the street. Keep in mind that all the stuff is commingled trash – wet organic and food waste, paper and board, plastics, metals, glass and all sorts of other refuse. The men work fast and efficiently, and surprisingly in a jovial manner, yet many of them are working with their bare hands to pick the valuable materials.


The second pathway of material recovery occurs at the landfills or dumps, and is an informal mechanism powered by poverty and necessity. Here pickers, the poorest among the poor, risk injury, sickness, and indignity to earn pennies. They pick valuable materials for recycling in an informal material economy. The work is menial, dirty, unsanitary, unsafe, and often occurs under harsh weather conditions. The recovered materials, the fruits of the pickers long hours of labor, probably yields a substandard market price. This is because the materials were collected from a dump of mixed contaminated source; hence the quality of those materials is generally poor. Many high value materials such a s paper and board are rendered useless for many recycled applications due to being wet and adherence of foreign matter. After all of this effort, these materials are destined for lower performance usage and much of the embedded energy – both base materials and human energy – is lost.

I presented the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s How2Recycle label that provides a clear and consistent means to communicate actions needed for proper disposal of packaging to optimize recovery. In Mexico, where recycling infrastructure is lacking and the ethic of material stewardship is underdeveloped, such communication combined with packaging waste bring sites can engage the citizens to do their part in closing the material loop. Engaging the citizens in material stewardship has long-term benefits for a more sustainable world, and can move society away from a use and throw model to a sustainable materials management (SMM) model where technical materials flow back into the cycle to be reborn as new packaging or product components.
Outlining the story of a company’s stewardship in combination with the How2Recycle recycling label is an opportunity to show the company’s determination to make sustainable material management a priority. It can help reinforce the critical role citizens play in closing the loop on packaging material recovery, and develop the recycling ethic in citizens, particularly children, that can bear long-term fruits in developing a sustainable material economy.
A brief anecdote from the streets of Mexico City:
One man’s trash is another man’s _________.
After the conference I moved from the posh Polanco area where the event was held to a hotel in the historic district. As I made my way from the Isabel la Catolica metro station, I saw a homeless man with natty dreads and messy clothing moving towards me. Such apparitions intrigue me and this one did not disappoint. The man had a faraway look in his eyes and he did not see me, or anyone else, and I might guess the throng scarcely noticed him.
This man’s manner was of great interest to me. He was simultaneously of the immediate environs yet somehow outside it. The man meandered through the flow of humanity while slowly and meditatively popping the tiny bubbles on a sheet of bubble wrap. He wasn’t popping the bubbles for apparent amusement or passing of time. His treatment of the packaging material was akin to one engaged in reciting prayer with the rosary beads or other meditative equivalent. He slipped through the random moving bodies about him seemingly aware only of his mumblings and the systematic row-by-row popping of the bubbles.
I observed the man as he moved peacefully through the pandemonium about him. I might say a bit of his peace transferred to me and helped me navigate the rush hour shoulder-to- shoulder metro traffic.

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Sustainable Packaging Coalition

The “Plastic Numbers" Get a Makeover

Resin Identification Codes (RICs), also known as the “plastic numbers” or “recycling numbers,” are getting a makeover.

Contrary to popular belief, a RIC does not equal “recyclable.” RICs are plastic identification codes developed in 1988 by SPI. The goal of RICs was to assist recyclers in identifying materials. They were never intended as a consumer communication tool. However, consumers and local recycling programs quickly adapted to use the ubiquitous “recycling numbers,” even as consumer testing continues to show that RICs confuse consumers and they do not understand their meaning.

RICs became an ASTM International standard in 2008. ASTM uses industry consensus via subcommittees to develop standards.

To decouple resin identification from recycling labeling, ASTM International Subcommittee D20.95 on Recycled Plastics approved a switch from chasing arrows to a triangle.

But not so fast.

RICs are required by law in 39 states. Herein lies a speedbump. Each state writes statutes in its own way with its own requirements. Many specifically require numbers with chasing arrows and specific letters.

While the international standard changed, state laws did not. It may take some time before consumers see the change. Meanwhile, companies must navigate between fulfilling the different state statutes or following the new ASTM standard.

Concurrently, GreenBlue’s How2Recycle label continues to take off. How2Recycle is an on-package recycling label that helps companies provide clear recycling instructions to consumers. How2Recycle replaces RICs as a clearer first line of communication with consumers. We anticipate great growth and exciting announcements in the near future.

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Sustainable Packaging Coalition

How2Recycle Sponsorships Now Available for Store Drop-off Labels

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) is happy to announce an offer of financial sponsorships for use of the How2Recycle “Store Drop-off” label! For eligible companies, the How2Recycle License Fee will be offset by these sponsorships. Sponsorships will target high-volume categories of polyethylene-based (HDPE and LDPE) flexible film which include but are not limited to newspaper bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags and product wraps.
I visit a nearby grocery store about once a week, but up until a few weeks ago I had no idea that I was able to drop off and recycle certain plastic bags there. Throughout the United States there are about 15,000 participating locations such as retail and grocery stores where people can recycle a variety of plastic films. The “Store Drop-off” How2Recycle Label is meant to direct the appropriate recyclable plastic films to these drop-off locations and to keep them out of curbside recycling bins. To find the drop-off site nearest you, visit the Check Locally page of the How2Recycle website.
GreenBlue and the SPC are thrilled to have the support of the Flexible Film Recycling Group (FFRG) of the American Chemistry Council who have generously made this sponsorship possible. The mission of the FFRG is to increase the collection and recycling of flexible plastic films and to educate consumers about the importance of recycling. The FFRG believes the “Store Drop-off” label will convey the ease of recycling this important material at local stores across the country.
Companies that have not yet been licensed under How2Recycle and otherwise meet the eligibility requirements of the program are qualified for a sponsorship. The “Store Drop-off” Label currently appears on the products of several participating How2Recycle companies including Kellogg, Sealed Air, and Seventh Generation.
Interested companies can find more information by visiting http://www.how2recycle.info/. To apply for a sponsorship, send an email to Anne Bedarf, with the subject line “How2Recycle”. Please include the name of your company, reason for interest, and the type(s) of packaging to which the company would apply the label.
Funding is limited for the How2Recycle sponsorships, so claim one for your company before the opportunity runs out!

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GreenBlue

Welcome Introduction: Kelly Lahvic

This summer, Kelly Lahvic joins the GreenBlue team as a summer intern. Kelly comes to GreenBlue as a recent graduate of the University of Virginia. Learn more about Kelly in the interview below.

Tell us about your background
I’m from Richmond, Virginia, where my family has lived for over 20 years. About a week ago, I graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Environmental Sciences and a minor in Global Sustainability. I originally wanted to study engineering, but a class on living simply and sustainably that I took during my first year of college shifted my focus to environmental science. 

Why were you interested in working with GreenBlue?
Over the past few months I had interviewed for multiple jobs, and GreenBlue was a company that was different from the rest both on paper and in person. As a small non-profit, GreenBlue was a refreshing change of pace from the typical huge company looking to hire an entry-level college graduate to make copies and take coffee orders. I could tell that GreenBlue practiced what they preached. In fact, the day I interviewed, I wasn’t even sure if the office was open since there were few lights on in the building, as most of the lighting comes from natural light through the windows.

What are you looking forward to in your internship?
I’m looking forward to having an internship where I am able to stay busy with valuable tasks. I am also looking forward to learning a lot throughout the whole process. I’ve only been here for a few days so far and I’ve already learned more about packaging and recycling than I thought possible. All of the work that I’m doing is encouraging me to dig deeper and discover as much as I can about sustainable packaging outside of what I might learn at this internship.   

What are your first impressions?
My first impression of GreenBlue came from the employees that work here. Everyone here has been warm, welcoming, and they are all genuinely motivated by what they are working towards with GreenBlue. As I stated before, this is a work environment filled with recycling bins and minimal energy usage; it’s obvious that everyone here cares about sustaining the environment.

Fun facts about yourself?
My parents own a bread company in Richmond, so I will never go hungry! As a result of growing up with a bakery family, I have always loved cooking and baking.

When I was younger my grandparents had a pool, so I learned to swim when I was three years old and have loved doing so ever since. I had a brief moment in the spotlight with one swimming state record, but a fellow teammate beat it in less than a year.